Give your Nip Out a new lease of life.

3 min read

Do you have the original Nip Out bag in grey? If you're unsure whether you have the original or 2.0 it's very easy to tell. The original had a dry wax finish, which has no feel of wax whatsoever. If that's the one you have, this blog post is for you!

The Nip Out is a go-to bag on any short trip and after a good amount of use, we're talking over a year of constant use it seems to have faded a little and lost its greyness.. We thought if it had happened to us, it's very possible it might have happened to a few of you. So what can you do to give it a second lease of life? Wax it. Now after you do that it will change the feel of the bag, as it will now have a more of a traditional waxy wax finish instead of the dry finish, but it's worth it! Have a look at what we did below..

So here's our little guy looking a bit sad, you can see how the main part that's usually exposed to the elements has faded.

First, we made sure the bag is clean before we applied anything on it, and the best way to clean it is ... baby wipes. As for the wax we used British millerain wax dressing and saddle soap for the leather, but if you already have a wax dressing from elsewhere or a different leather polish/conditioner that's OK too, just make sure they're neutral with no colour to them and perhaps just test a little tiny patch before doing the whole bag in case something goes wrong, although we highly doubt it will.

So the instructions on the pot of wax say, put it in a bowl of hot water to soften it and use a cotton rag to apply it which is the proper way, although we like to blow hairdryer into the pot to soften in and use our fingers to rub it in, but please don't follow our lead if you have any sort of allergies or a fear that it might affect your skin, follow the proper instructions to be safe.

Once you start applying the wax, really rub it in and you'll start to see the change instantly as you see in the small patch on the right in this picture above. Once you've done the whole bag if it's uneven, or if you have too much in a few spots, get your hairdryer out and blow heat into those spots, when you see the wax starting to melt, rub it until you're satisfied. Pay attention to the back of the bag as that will be rubbing against your clothing, make sure there are no clumps.

Now for the leather. Get your leather polish, rub a clean cloth on it if its a tin like ours and simply rub the leather with it. If you've been using the bag in the rain, the leather might have hardened over time, so this step should also soften it as well as clean it.

Don't forget the edges of the leather straps, if they've gone a little shabby like ours in the picture, rub them until they go smooth, that might darken the actual edge just a little bit, but it'll make it smooth again.